First Niagara cutting 180 jobs companywide

First Niagara Financial Group is cutting 180 positions companywide, including 65 in the Capital Region, a company spokesman said Thursday.

The positions were cut because they don’t directly support running the business, said First Niagara spokesman David Lanzillo. About 30 positions were in facilities and building maintenance, which the bank will outsource. But Lanzillo said half of the people affected have already been offered jobs with the new firm, and that the others would be able to apply.

He also said First Niagara is recruiting to fill about 250 new positions across the company, and many of those who are losing their jobs will be able to apply for these open positions.

Others, he said, will be offered severance pay and job placement help.

First Niagara earlier this year completed its acquisition of 195 HSBC branches and $15 billion in customer accounts as that company exited retail banking across upstate New York. The acquisition added 1,200 jobs, part of the 2,700 jobs that First Niagara said it has added over the past two years. It now has 6,000 employees, including about 700 in eastern New York, most of them in the Capital Region.

Regulators subsequently forced First Niagara to unload dozens of those branches and $4 billion in deposits, to reduce its market concentration.